AMD Aims to Meet Higher Expectations for Tablet and Hybrid PC Performance at Mobile World Congress 2013

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AMD Turbo Dock Adjusts Performance and Power Consumption to Meet User Needs When Switching Between Tablet and Hybrid Modes

SUNNYVALE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/20/13 -- AMD (NYSE: AMD), creator of the performance tablet category, today announced a new innovation for hybrid PCs that delivers uncompromised mobile PC experiences when in tablet mode or when connected to its base keyboard. Hybrid PCs are a new market segment between full notebooks and pure tablets that AMD plans to demonstrate, along with stand-alone performance tablets, at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain next week.

AMD Turbo Dock technology(1) automatically adjusts performance of the AMD accelerated processing unit (APU) higher while a hybrid PC is docked and being used for more complex tasks like content creation. Likewise, AMD Turbo Dock is designed to lower power consumption when in tablet mode, helping to save battery life and extend movie or video watching, as well as web browsing time.

"With our latest APUs, AMD aims to deliver a more complete, full-featured experience on tablet and hybrid PCs than has been available to date," said Steve Belt, vice president of AMD Ultra-low Power Products. "AMD Turbo Dock technology delivers on that promise by dynamically adjusting to what the user is doing to provide the optimal experience and battery life whether they are watching a video, playing a DirectX® 11-supported game or building a PowerPoint presentation for work."

AMD Turbo Dock technology is expected to appear this year on equipped hybrid systems built around the system-on-chip (SoC) codenamed "Temash" with AMD Radeon™ HD graphics. "Temash" is AMD's latest ultra-low power, mobility processor for Windows 8 tablets and hybrids that delivers five times the graphics performance of the competition's x86 tablet solution(2). Demonstrations at Mobile World Congress will include leading-edge applications and games on both quad-core and dual-core versions of the processor built with 28nm manufacturing technology.

"IDC research shows that two of the top demands tablet owners have are speed and a high resolution display," said Tom Mainelli, research director for tablets at IDC. "Balancing performance on high pixel density screens with user demands around battery life is essential to a great tablet experience. Technologies like AMD's newest generation APU 'Temash' aim to meet those needs."

Other premium features available from AMD-based tablets and hybrids include:

  • Access to the AMD AppZone, a one-stop resource for accessing popular applications that can take advantage of the full compute capability of the processor;
  • AMD Start Now technology that allows fast boot and resume from sleep times(3);
  • AMD Radeon HD graphics on the APU, with support for full HD 1080p resolution, HDMI output for external displays, and impressive gaming performance with Microsoft DirectX 11 capability;
  • Windows 8 and Windows 7 support with backward compatibility for all Windows applications.

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About AMD
AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD's server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD's superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

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(1) AMD Turbo Dock technology allows a tablet device to boost its performance when connected with a compatible base unit. AMD Turbo Dock-compatible base units provide supplemental APU cooling beyond what is available solely in the slate. Actual performance increases using AMD Turbo Dock technology will vary based on the manufacturer's tablet, base unit and supplemental cooling solution design. AMD Turbo Dock technology is currently available only on the 2013 AMD A6-1450 APU, and is not available on all tablet models - check with the manufacturer for specific models that support this feature.

(2) Test conducted in AMD Performance Labs using FutureMark 3DMark 06 as a metric for GPU performance. The AMD A6-1450 APU-based system scored 2624 while the Intel Atom Z2760 based system scored 451. The platforms tested were the "Larne" reference platform with an AMD A6-1450 Quad Core 1.0GHz APU, AMD Radeon™ HD 8280 series graphics, 2GB DDR3-1066 system memory and Microsoft Windows 8, versus an Acer ICONIA W510-1666 with an Intel Atom Z2760 1.5GHz CPU, Intel integrated graphics, 2GB DDR3-1066 system memory and Microsoft Windows 8. TEM-5

(3) AMD Start Now technology is a BIOS-optimized solution designed to deliver better system responsiveness by minimizing the time to wake up the system from sleep mode, boot the system to desktop and connect to a wireless local area network. Actual times will vary based on operating system, APU, driver, disk drive and memory speed. AMD Start Now technology is available with select AMD APUs when running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Check with your component or system manufacturer or retailer for specific model capabilities.

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Contacts:
Gary Silcott
AMD Client Products
(512) 602-0889
gary.silcott@amd.com

Source: Advanced Micro Devices

Released February 20, 2013